Muscling up on cloud technologies, Cisco Systems is in the process of acquiring network management software vendor LineSider Technologies, the company announced Wednesday.

Cisco is interested in the LineSider technology for rapid network provisioning software, as well as for its workforce of engineers. Both will help in Cisco's pursuit of the fledgling cloud market, according to the company.

"With the acquisition of LineSider, Cisco will gain a key component to helping customers make [the] shift" to cloud computing, said Jesper Andersen, senior vice president of Cisco's Network Management Technology Group, in a statement.

"LineSider's advanced network management software integrates both physical and virtual network services with a policy-based approach and makes networks more flexible and responsive to change," he said.

LineSider's flagship OverDrive software provides an abstraction layer that allows users to easily organize and reorganize network components. Using the software's policy-based approach, organizations can craft a set of rules that can reconfigure virtual networks, depending on demand.

In 2008, Cisco competitor 3Com partnered with LineSider to offer a version of OverDrive software that would work with 3Com's routers, which would allow customers to more easily virtualize their networks.

Based in Danvers, Massachusetts, and founded in 2005, LineSider has also partnered with VMware, EMC and Cisco itself.